State records guide

Title research in Alabama

Facts below are taken from Alabama statutes and official sources, each linked, each checked on the date shown. General information, not legal advice.

What an Alabama title search has to account for

Where are Alabama deeds recorded?

With the judge of probate. Section 35-4-50 sends conveyances that the law requires to be recorded to the office of the judge of probate, and section 35-4-62 has conveyances of real property recorded in the county where the property is situated. In counties divided into divisions, or with more than one courthouse or a courthouse annex, that section lets a deed, mortgage, judgment, tax lien, lis pendens or financing statement be recorded in either division or at any courthouse or annex, where the county's recordings are stored and indexed electronically as it describes.

Section 35-10-1 has probate judges index foreclosure deeds by the names of the original grantor and grantee in the mortgage, as well as the grantor and grantee in the foreclosure deed. The report traces the chain of title as far back as the county's records go, in whichever of the 67 counties holds the land, with document images of the key instruments, and verifies findings with the assessor, tax office, recorder and courts.

How does an Alabama foreclosure work, and can the owner come back?

Section 35-10-1 makes a power to sell lands given in a mortgage part of the security, executable by any person who becomes entitled to the money secured, and the conveyance to the purchaser at the sale vests the legal title in the purchaser.

Section 6-5-248 lets the debtor, the mortgagor, junior mortgagees and the other parties it lists redeem after the sale. For residential property on which a homestead exemption was claimed in the tax year of the sale, that right runs 180 days; for other property it runs one year. For that homestead property, the period does not begin until the notice the section requires is given, and in no case may redemption be exercised later than one year after the foreclosure. The rights of spouses, children, heirs or devisees end when the debtors or mortgagors have conveyed their interests and been released from the debt. An auction title report reports the foreclosing lien's position and the liens that would survive, in dollars, for the bidder's attorney.

Does Alabama sell tax liens or tax deeds?

Both, depending on the county and the year. Section 40-10-180 gives each county's tax collecting official the decision whether to collect delinquent taxes by selling a tax lien or by selling the land itself, and the choice applies to all real property in that county for that year.

Where the land itself was sold, section 40-10-120 opens redemption for three years from the date of the sale when a private buyer bought, and for as long as the state holds title when the state took the property. An infant or insane person entitled to redeem within the three years may redeem within one year after the disability is removed, and a party whose mortgage or lien was duly recorded at the time of the tax sale has one year from the date of written notice from the purchaser of the purchase. Where a lien was sold, section 40-10-193 has the owner, a mortgagee or another person with an interest redeem by paying the tax collecting official the amounts it lists. The report verifies tax sales and redemptions with the tax office and states the surviving liens, taxes and assessments in dollars.

What happens to Alabama title at death or divorce?

A probate title search finds the decedent's property by name and reports vesting at death, how title passes, including joint tenancy, a transfer on death deed, a trust or a life estate, and the liens to pay.

On divorce, section 30-2-51(b) makes the marital estate subject to equitable division and distribution unless the parties agree otherwise and except as federal or state law provides. Subsection (a) covers an allowance to a spouse out of the other spouse's estate, and in setting it the judge may not consider property acquired before the marriage or by inheritance or gift, unless that property or its income was used regularly for the parties' common benefit during the marriage. The report states the recorded deed or judgment it finds, and an attorney reads the effect.

Where does an Alabama condominium lien rank against the mortgage?

Section 35-8A-316 says the association's assessment lien is not prior to a first security interest recorded before the assessment became delinquent, but it is prior to that mortgage for the budgeted common expense assessments that would have become due in the six months before the association's civil action or the mortgage foreclosure.

Costs and attorney fees are excluded from that six-month priority, and for a mortgage shown to be assigned to or owned by one of the federal mortgage agencies the section names, or with one of them as guarantor, the priority does not exceed what that agency's rules allow. Recording the declaration constitutes record notice and perfection of the lien, and the lien is extinguished unless proceedings to enforce it are instituted within three years after the full amount of the assessments becomes due. On a written request, the association furnishes a statement of the amounts due, and a failure to furnish it within 10 business days releases the lien for that amount, though not the owner's debt. The report states any recorded association lien it finds.

Which package fits an Alabama property?

Every package covers Alabama property wherever it is recorded. Pick by situation:

• Probate law firm: Find every property a decedent held, how it was vested and what has to be paid before it passes. $595 per estate.
• Real estate law firm: A preliminary report with schedule-style exceptions and print-ready exhibits for your matter. $695 per property.
• Builders and developers: Multi-parcel research on access, easements, restrictions, mineral reservations and entity ownership. $995 first parcel.
• Auction buyer: Know the total cost to own, which liens survive the sale and whether to bid at all. $395 for 1 property.
• Home buyer: Confirm the seller owns the home and learn what has to be cleared before you pay. $449 per property.
• Home seller: Find the old mortgage, judgment or name mismatch before a buyer's title company does. $449 per property.

Questions about Alabama title research